There was never any reason to believe that deadline, though. They’re only addressing half the system, it’s gonna take forever to get anything really done. (Highsec warfare mechanics are as much about Crimewatch as Wardecs).

You guys say you redesigned the NeoCom for new players but decided it should STILL be monochrome?! Serious question: did you test it with a single person outside the company / usual devs / internal testers that are familiar with the current one?

If you want to make it accessible to new players - make the icons different colours like they used to be. I have played Eve since 2003 and when I came back recently I could barely tell the icons apart for a long time. It’s totally unintuitive and bland. I know someone on the ui team thinks the design looks nice and sleek with all the icons being the same colour, but they’re extremely nondescript and hard to tell apart. UIs are actually meant to be used by people, they’re not just a pure graphic design exercise.

I honestly despair at this, 5 minutes of external testing would give you a clear answer that coloured icons are more easy to recognise on what is already a complex and overwhelming UI for any new players. I am a game dev and we bring in hordes of players from the public under NDAs to test during development - you have to test / question your assumptions about what players like all the time, or you get stuck in a rut like this. Come on guys.